Cutting Edge At Lexus Dulls A Bit

The New Sports Sedans Are A Blast To Drive, But Toyota's Luxury Division Is Playing Technological Catch-up.

October 16, 1997|By Al Haas Philadelphia Inquirer

LEESBURG, VA. — The meandering rural ride in Lexus' entertaining new GS 400 hot rod took me from a hotel to the Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. It also took me to the realization that Toyota's long-lionized Lexus luxury-car division was playing catch-up.

At the track, the writers previewing the new GS 400 and GS 300, as well as the revised LS 400, got a chance to test those cars' new Vehicle Skid Control system, or VSC. The system, which basically applies the brakes and pinches the power to prevent the car from sliding sideways in a fast or slippery turn, worked fine. There was nothing cutting-edge about it, however.

In fact, it was just a variation on systems already offered by Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

This kind of technological catch-up epitomizes what is happening to the Japanese luxury-car makers, in the opinion of industry analyst Bill Pochiluk, a partner at Coopers & Lybrand.

Pochiluk contends that when the Japanese got into the luxury-car game back in the late '80s, they arrived with fine products and caught Mercedes and BMW sitting on their laurels.

But now the Germans have come roaring back, regaining their old primacy with remarkable new technology and sophisticated marketing.

Put succinctly, significant features such as side air bags and electronic skid control have been climbing aboard the German iron before they find their way into the Japanese stuff.

''The Germans are reinventing the luxury vehicle, and the Japanese have fallen back into being fast followers,'' Pochiluk opines.

While the new GS sport sedans may not be studded with breakthrough technology, they are almost completely new automobiles. About the only carry-over is the front suspension and the six-cylinder engine architecture.

Previously, the GS was available only as the GS 300 (the numeral ''300'' signifying a 3.0-liter, in-line six). Now it also is offered as the GS 400, which is powered by a 4.0-liter V-8.

Like the old GS 300, the new GS 300 and GS 400 models are performance-minded, rear-drive sedans positioned between the entry-level Lexus ES 300, which starts at $29,900, and the big LS 400 flagship, which opens at $52,900. The GS 300 will start at $36,800, while the GS 400 will begin at $44,800.

The identical styling of the two GS models represents an obvious attempt to depart from Lexus' usual bland, conservative designs and underscore the athletic intentions of these lively sport sedans.

One should applaud that kind of effort, but, unfortunately, it doesn't work out very well.

The attempt to go ''beyond cab-forward,'' as one Lexus operative put it, reduces front overhang to a point where the car looks chopped off. The separation of taillights and brake lamps leaves those in following cars to stare at two unsettling red eyes. In profile, the car evokes a Saab 9000 in its ninth month.

Once I got into the GS cars, I promptly put the external aesthetics on the back burner. Who wants to grump about sheet-metal sculpting when you are having this much fun?

The 225-horsepower GS 300 is frisky business, going from 0 to 60 mph in 7.6 seconds. The 300-horsepower GS 400 is a real terror, vaulting from rest to 60 mph in six seconds, which puts it in sports-car terrain.

The two models ain't slouches at the top end, either. The GS 400 keeps on truckin' up to 149 mph; the GS 300 to 144.

That kind of engine performance derives in part from the addition of variable valve timing to the six previously used in the GS 300, and the V-8 borrowed from the LS 400 for use in the new GS 400. (The variable valve timing raised the six from 220 to 225 horsepower, and the V-8 from 260 to 300. This more powerful V-8 also is used in the LS 400 but develops 10 fewer horses in that car because of its more restrictive exhaust system.)

Handling

Handling is another delightful chapter of the GS performance story. The GS 300, which is equipped with 16-inch performance tires, is a nice-handling car. The GS 400 with the even larger and more aggressive optional 17-inch rubber is even better. It's a real cornering fool.

This handling disparity wasn't terribly evident on public byways driven at sensible speeds, but it became quite apparent when I got the GS 300 and 400 on the road course at Summit Point Raceway: The GS 300 was good, but its tires just didn't have the adhesion of those Z-rated 17-inchers.

I really got a charge out of driving the GS 400 as fast as I could. The suspension was very composed and forgiving, the steering was quick and precise, the car was aligned with Mars, I was in the Seventh Heaven, and, for a couple of wonderfully fatiguing hours on a warm September afternoon in West Virginia, it really was the Automotive Age of Aquarius.

The GS cars ride comfortably, although those optional low-profile performance tires do degrade the bump-handling a bit. They also have more room inside than the old car and get a larger trunk, thanks in part to ingenious gas tank packaging. (The tank wraps around the driveshaft like a saddlebag.) Improvements in structural rigidity have a quieting influence, virtually banishing squeak and creak from the cabin.

The GS cars, however, will still have to go some to out-hush the new LS 400. That car, incredibly quiet to begin with, has gotten even more mausoleumlike for 1998. The engineers were able to further reduce the sounds made by the world outside by increasing window thickness 20 percent.

I always thought that ''The Silence of LS 400s'' was a good thing. But according to a car writer at the Lexus preview, that isn't always so. He said a friend got rid of his LS 400 because the lack of noise, particularly an engine note, gave him the creeps.